Chilled Evergreen
by wibblywobblywesteros
Summary: Eric is a very rich vampire and just maybe someone is stupid or desperate enough to try to rob him. Original Supernatural Character.
1. Chapter 1

Eric Northman awoke in the silver barred cell and for a moment was confused about his whereabouts. He lay flat on his back on a cement cot in the semi-dark room, looking around, trying to remember. Then he felt a stab of emotion as it all came back to him. The well armed thieves (at least thirty of them) had gotten off with most of the cash in the safe, had captured him, and staked Pam. He imagined they had only kept him alive because they were after bank codes and passwords. It was no secret that he and Pam had made a fortune with New Blood. Yet their security had been very good. How had this happened?

His senses were alerted as he heard movement and smelled a presence nearby. Even in the dim light he could see that there was another cell next to his and someone had moved within it. He rose stiffly from the cement bed and crossed the cell to get a closer look at his neighbor. She was curled up in the corner farthest from him, leaning against the bars, apparently not vampire as the silver didn't bother her and apparently quite afraid. His first thoughts were that she, whoever she was, was not a fellow prisoner but one of the thieves who had been placed here to get information from him. He had no intention of being fooled by her terror.

"Hey, what are you in for?" Eric asked her somewhat humorously.

She uncurled just enough to glance up at him. She had long light brown curly hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and freckled cheeks. Her clothes were jeans and a button up shirt and they were in tatters, her face bruised.

"No reason." She said timidly. "You?"

"No, I don't believe that. You have to be here for a reason. My crime was being wealthy. So your crime is what? Being beautiful enough to get information from me?" Eric asked pointedly.

Her face registered confusion then comprehension. "No...I'm not a plant or a spy, not yet, not willingly...but expect I'll have no choice in the role eventually... I've been here for a very long time."

"How long?" He said more firmly, trying to meet her eyes. If he could glamour her he could get the truth out of her.

"That won't work on me… the glamouring... I'm not human." She said, still unmoved from her spot farthest away from him as she could get.

"That explains why you smell different. You aren't fairy either, I would know if you were. What are you?"

The young woman never got a chance to answer. A door opened at the end of the corridor between the six cells in this area and four men entered. They wore welding masks, green uniforms, and were armed to the teeth. Eric turned and faced the front of his cell to speak with them.

"Gentlemen, don't you think the masks and guns are a bit excessive? Obviously, you've caught me. I'm not going anywhere?

"They aren't for you, Northman." Said a voice muffled behind one of the masks. "The gear is for her."

Eric glanced over at the woman in the adjacent cell. She was still curled up in the corner. The man who had spoken unlocked her cell and the three others entered it ahead of him. They went to her and forcefully yanked her to her feet. She pulled away and one of them struck her face, bruising the other cheek. Tears welled up in her eyes and she went stiff, keeping herself from struggling further.

"We have another task for you, Moira. We expect your full cooperation, is that understood?" The man who seemed to be the leader commanded her in whispered tones. He probably wasn't aware of vampires acute hearing. Or maybe he was and all of this was just a ploy. Eric trusted no one and nothing.

She nodded, shaken. "Please... I don't think it works on vampires...I would help you if I could...but I've never had much influence over vampires…"

"Right, like you didn't have any influence with Timon." One of the other men commented sarcastically.

"It took six weeks...with humans it takes all but a few minutes..." Moira's voice was shaken but quiet. "Maybe I didn't have any influence at all and Timon just became careless."

"Six weeks isn't very long long for our purposes. And it's not as if he can kill you. When it's over we'll get you a nice tree, alright?' The leader said condescendingly. Two of the men grabbed her arms and the other two aimed their weapons at Eric while his cell was opened and Moira was shoved inside, she was screaming and struggling with them until the moment the locked clicked shut. Then she turned to face her cellmate, terror in her eyes. The four men left the area in a flurry.

Eric stared down at the woman before him, unmoved. "What the fuck was that about?"

"I'm told you I'm not human. I'm a dryad." Moira told him.

Eric was vaguely familiar with dryads as being supes with a connection to trees and with powers of seduction and suggestion over human men. They were reported to have long lives or even be immortal much like vampires. It seemed as though his captors were using this dryad to gain passcodes and the like from their wealthy prisoners.

"I see. Well you can relax. I won't harm you." He said matter of factly. "If they haven't already told you, my name is Eric." He backed away and sat down on the cement slab that had been his bed.

Moira stayed wide eyed near the door.

"Come. Sit down." Eric said, indicating the space next to him.

Moira hesitated, but then resigned herself to her fate and went to sit with the viking vampire. They sat for some minutes in silence. Eric was comfortable with silence but Moira seemed anxious, fidgeting with every few seconds.

"Relax." Eric told her a second time. "I will not harm you. I am very old and don't need to feed very often. You are perfectly safe."

"Forgive me if I find that quite unbelieveable." She said.

"Who was Timon?" Eric asked after more silence had passed.

"He was a young vampire our captors took for his bank codes. Usually they deal with humans and I never have any trouble getting information from humans. Timon was a test, to see if I could get through to vampires. They called it a success...I _did _get the codes….but…"

"What happened?"

"With humans, my task is quite simple. I live in that cell over there and have for a very long time. They bring in a prisoner and I need to only touch them and they are mesmerized as if I am some beautiful creature. They tell me everything and anything in the hope that I will sleep with them. It's quite a pathetic obsession and it lasts for as long as I am in proximity.

In my few encounters with your kind over the years, I've never had any power over them. Timon was no different but Ed believed I wasn't trying hard enough so he put me in the same cell with Timon.

Timon drained me, again and again. Each time it took twenty four hours for my cells to regenerate the blood he'd taken and while I was unconscious he violated me again and again...eventually he did tell me the codes but I don't think that it had anything to do with my abilities as a dryad. Timon felt guilty over his nature as a vampire and over what he had done to me. He told me out of shame...nothing more…" Moira brushed away a few stray tears.

Eric said nothing to all this. He had long ago accepted his nature and had gotten a great deal more control over it than the younger vampires had over theirs. Even if Moira's story was true, there was nothing he could do to help her now. Or was there?

"Are they listening right now?" Eric asked, glancing at one of the video cameras high on the wall outside the cells.

"I don't know. Sometimes they just record the footage to look over later."

"Do they come at scheduled times to bring you food or to check on us?" He asked.

"Twice a day. Ed will bring vegetables for me and they brought New Blood for Timon when he was here. He never drank them though."

"I will." Eric looked at her pointedly.

"Thank you." She told him, hardly daring to believe it. He only nodded.

They lapsed between periods of silence and periods of conversation after that. There was little else to do in the bare cell but talk to one another. Eric told her bits of his past, giving her a brief history of his nine- hundred years. Then Moira revealed that she was quite old herself, seven hundred and twelve years old to be exact. As far she knew, she was immortal. Every near death experience she'd had in the last seven centuries had resulted in her body healing itself over time. And there had been many near death experiences. Dryads didn't have the strength of vampires or the defensive bolts of light like fairies. Their only defense was being able to camouflage themselves like a tree or to have control over human men but this control was very limited. They could only control a few men at any one time so if someone really wanted to harm a dryad or capture one, capture wasn't difficult. Modern technology had made this even easier as her current captors wore masks that kept them free from her influence. Moira had been powerless to escape from them for nine years. She had tried to get her human cell partners to aid her escape in the past but soon found that her captors resorted to torture when they caught this on camera. Getting the information her captors wanted was usually rewarded with time in a heavily guarded forest. Moira needed time with trees to maintain her mental health. Without it, she went temporarily insane and was useless to her captors.

At dawn and dusk the four men came with food for Eric and Moira. New Blood and a plate of vegetables because Moira could not eat meat. It made dryads severely ill to eat meat that was anything but decomposed and most of them were not willing to eat it in that state. Two weeks passed with the pair sharing a cell. Eric went to ground literally on the ground and Moira slept on the cement slab. Never once did Eric try to feed from her. He really wasn't hungry and she didn't smell very appetizing. At least that's what he kept telling himself. Then one dawn the leader of their captors, Moira had told Eric his name was Ed, came to make an announcement.

Moira fled to the furthest corner of the cell when he entered the corridor. She feared Ed more than she feared Eric at this point. The corner really didn't offer her any protection. It wa simply instinctive to find some surface to cling to. In any other circumstance she would have sought a tree trunk and like a chameleon she would have changed to blend with the tree.

"This is the last meal I will be bringing to you until the two of you make some progress on this arrangement." Ed said.

"What?" Moira nearly dropped the tin plate Eric had handed her onto the floor.

"Doctor Franks has been studying your the footage and evidence from your last encounter, Moira, and has made a few determinations. He believes that your influence over the vampire was a result of his having so much of your blood. Mr Northman will need to drink from you if he's ever going to give us what we need. So there won't be any more New Blood after this." With that, Ed walked away.

"Why don't they just torture me like other desperate criminals? What advantage is there to using you?" Eric asked Moira, who was as wide eyed and frightened as she had been their first day together.

"Because you're worth millions. And they're afraid of you. This way is safer for them." Moira sounded hopeless.

"As soon as I tell them what they want to know, they'll give me the true death. So I can not drink from you. Not if there might be any truth to what this doctor is saying." Eric said.

"Then they likely will torture one or both of us. Ed isn't sane but he is determined." Moira said, tears brimming her eyes.

Eric placed the New Blood on the cement cott and stepped closer to her, effectively trapping her in the corner with his large frame. It was the first time he had been this close to her and Moira began to panic.

"Stay calm." Eric said evenly but Moira was struggling against him, though not really phasing him no matter how hard she struck or pushed him. "I'm not going to feed." He said, his head too close to her neck for her to even think about being calm. "Their cameras can't see us here. If we're careful, maybe they can't hear us either." Moira went still, finally realizing what he was up to. He was trying to have a private conversation with her.

The problem being, Eric _was _hungry and Moira _did _smell appetizing, especially knowing that there would be no more New Blood. Still, he was not a baby vampire. He could control himself for a quite a long while more if he needed to. He hoped he wouldn't need to.

"You realize what's going to happen, don't you?" He told her in a whisper. "If they believe that I am refusing to feed from you then they will think I have grown attached to you and they'll turn to torture instead. If I can convince them that it I abstain only to protect my information and in turn my life then they'll torture me. If they aren't convinced that of that then it will be you."

"I know." She whispered. still shaken by the closeness.

"So we have to get out."

Moira had clearly not expected _that. _She glanced up at Eric with a look that showed she thought he must be crazy. "How?" She finally managed to ask.

"I don't know yet. But until I think of something, try to trust me."

"Why should I? You don't trust me." Moira said.

Eric was a little surprised by that. So far, she wasn't ordinarily very bold and he had done nothing to indicate he didn't trust her, though if truth be told, he didn't. "If we don't trust each other, then we don't get out." He said.

"Even if _we _do get out, what then? Am I free to go? Where would I even go? This isn't the first time I've been held captive by humans who wanted to use me. It won't be the last. I'll never be safe. So why should I help you?" Her words were bold but there was definite fear in her eyes.

Eric looked down at this lovely creature he had trapped with his body and thought for a moment how different she was than Pam. Where Pam had been bold and sarcastic, Moira was timid and polite. Where Pam had been sensual and reckless, Moira was modest and patient. They were opposites in every way and though he missed Pam and knew he would never replace her, there was something intriguing, something more than just hunger and lust, about Moira that he couldn't just ignore.

"I could protect you." Eric offered, and it was not a casual offer.

"What?" Moira breathed, barely comprehending him.

"I said, I could protect you. But that protection will come at a price." The idea was taking clearer shape in his mind now.

"My blood?"

"Eventually yes. But I will not drain you, and I will not take more than I need, and I will not rape you." He wasn't sure why he was being so kind to her. He had done all of those things to others without a second thought in his younger years. No, that wasn't entirely true. There had been second thoughts. Especially when such treatment had been unwarranted by the victim. That's why, in later years, he preferred to feed on people who had offended him in some way or who came willingly.

Her breathing quickened, this proposal clearly frightened her. "I don't know...do I have a choice?"

"Yes, but chose quickly. What our captors decide to do with us may depend a lot on how we behave."

She nodded. "Okay. Then do it." Moira was still shaking but her tone was determined.

"You're still afraid?" Eric asked her, still near her neck.

"Yes. I am very afraid." She admitted.

"Then not yet." Eric said, moving to set her free from the corner where he had trapped her. She fled away from him and sat on the cement bed. Eric picked up the New Blood and drank about one quarter of it, putting the cover back on the bottle he sat down next to her on the bed.

That day while they slept (Moira was in the habit of sleeping by day as Eric did just so she would be awake while he was awake, probably out of caution and boredom) Eric awoke to Moira having a nightmare. It was not the first time she'd had such dreams. In their two weeks sharing a cell she had woken him many times a day while they slept. Ordinarily, he ignored her and did his best to resume sleep on the floor as soon as she settled down on her bed. It had occurred to him that whatever the truth was about Moira, she certainly did have a troubled past as no one could suffer from such nightmares without one. He watched her for a moment struggling with her unseen monster and wondered if she would rather be woken up than exist in the dream. Waking her would be the first step in showing her that he intended to protect her if she would allow it.

"Moira." He said, placing a hand on her arm. She didn't awaken so he moved and sat on the edge of the bed, placing both hands on her arms. "Moira!" He shook her gently and she awakened with a start, gasping for air. He expected she would flee from him on waking and finding him sitting over her but she didn't. She sat up and before he knew it she was clinging to him, arms around him, sobbing. So he leaned against the cement wall behind them. wrapped his arms around her, pulled her onto his lap, and held her while she wept. He knew humans liked that sort of thing. Maybe dryads did too. It was a long time before she calmed herself enough to stop crying. Eric loosened his arms around her.

"Please… don't let go…" She whispered, still clinging to his shirt. "No one's ever held me like this before…"

Eric raised an eyebrow. "No one?"

Moira looked up at him. "Not willingly. Dryads don't have that luxury. Any human males I come in contact with don't get any choice in their feelings for me. I can tell them to do anything, to hold me or kiss me or fuck me or to never come near me again and they will obey, but it's never genuine."

"Then your seven hundred and twelve years must have been very lonely." Eric said, as he tightened his arms around her, unable to imagine how it might feel to never know true affection for so long. Moira nodded, relaxing in the embrace. They fell asleep like that Eric did not wake up until dusk when the lights came on.

"How long have you been awake?"Eric asked Moira, who was still in his arms but wide awake.

"A couple hours."

"I would have let you go…" He told her.

"I know. I didn't want to go."

"I thought you didn't trust me. Now it seems you can't get close enough."

"Maybe I was wrong. Maybe all vampires are not the same." Moira said.

"Of course all vampires aren't the same. But all vampires _are_ vampires." He felt especially hungry with having her so close.

"I know. But you can obviously be kinder than Timon was. Maybe you can even drink from me without draining and raping me." She said.

"I can. But I won't feed on you at all for the time being." He knew that she wasn't human, that she was at least telling the truth about that but beyond that he had no idea what the truth really was.

"You still don't trust me." Moira pointed out.

"How do I know you aren't part of some elaborate trap? Right now, my banking information is the only thing keeping me alive. Maybe Timon was just a story. Maybe if I feed from you just one time, I'll get intoxicated and give you all the information they want."

"If that were true, why wouldn't they just give you my blood in a bottle?" Moira asked.

"I don't know. Perhaps it has to be living and fresh to work."

Moira pulled away from him, frustrated, and stood up. "I am who I say I am. I haven't told you one word that wasn't true! I don't know what I can do to prove that…didn't you ever encounter any other dryads in all these years?"

"No. I had heard of dryads and knew your kind to have power over humans. Vampires tended to avoid dryads because of your association with trees. Some said that dryads are part tree and since wood is able to bring us the true death, their blood would bring death as well." Eric told her.

"It isn't true. That was a myth spread by the dryads long ago for our protection. The truth is, we are related to the fairies. A very distant relation but close enough that our blood is appealing to vampires. Our only defense against being kept captive as living blood donors were lies like that."

At that, the door to the corridor opened. Ed and his three cronies entered, bringing with the a rolling cart of equipment, torture equipment.

"Well well. It seems that you two have decided to be friends. We can't have that," Ed said. He motioned to one of his men. "Get her out of there." The other two men had guns aimed at both of the prisoners.

"No." Eric said firmly, Moving in front of Moira in the corner. "She stays."

"These guns have wooden bullets vamp. You need to move!" Ed said, angry.

"You're not going to kill me, not yet. And you're not taking her without getting through me."

The men looked to Ed, unsure what to do next. He waved them off. "Let's go. We'll be back for her."

"I'm sure you will."

Eric turned to Moira once they were gone. This was the true test of her loyalty or it was about to be. It seemed strange to him that Ed and his men arrived to remove Moira at the moment that they did. Were they trying to rescue her now that their plan had failed? Or were they truly resorting to torture. Either way, he could not let her leave.

"They'll be back soon. Most likely with silver. If you help me, my offer to take you with me and give you protection still stands." Eric left unsaid what he would do to her if she betrayed him.

"I'm on your side." Moira said decidedly. "I know what to do."

Eric was still guarding Moira in the corner of the cell when Ed came back, this time with five others. None of them were experts in handling vampires, that seemed obvious. Perhaps they would have been successful criminals if they only dealt with humans. It might be that they had done quite well for themselves up to this point. But they had not done so well when they killed Pam and captured him in Fangtasia. He had killed almost all of their thirty men before they shot him with enough silver bullets to be tied up with silver cord and taken away. Now, with only six of them left, how did they really think this was going to play put? They should have just shot him with silver until he was incapacitated on the floor, then tied him up but no one fired a shot. Two men approached him, silver chains in hand while the four others stood guard.

"Seriously?" Eric said at the last second when the man reached for him and he stepped aside with vampire speed, letting the human fall onto Moira and pulling off the man's mask as he went. By the time Eric had thrown the second man against the wall, the first one was under Moira's spell. He had turned around and aimed his gun at his friends.

Ed and the other men seemed unsure what to do next.

"Remember gentlemen, silver bullets won't kill me, but they'll still kill you." This was Moira's moment to prove who she really was loyal to.

"Shoot them." She told her human and he did. Bullets were flying everywhere and three of their captors went down before the human Moira had under her control went down as well. Eric had several bullets in him but was still upright. Moira had taken two as well. Ed was the only one still standing. He tried to run but didn't get far. Eric caught him and dragged him back towards Moira.

"You killed Pam!" Eric bellowed at Ed.

Moira had never witnessed such a violent death in all her life. So much blood and chaos as Ed was torn apart. When it was over Eric met her horrified eyes and struggled to calm himself.

"Are there more guards?" He asked her.

"I don't think so. I think that was all."

Moira followed him out of the corridor, up the stairs into the apartments above which were empty, then out the front door. There were several vehicles nearby with keys in them. Eric stared at them lost in thought.

"Where will you go?" Moira asked, seeming to understand his thought process.

"Back to Fangtasia I suppose. Are you coming with me?"

"You really meant it? About offering protection?"

He nodded. "I meant it. And it doesn't need to involve your blood anymore. Now that we're out of there I can feed anyway."

"My blood isn't going to kill you." She said with a smile. "It never was. I can prove to you that I was telling the truth. Ed must have kept the video footage somewhere inside. Help me find it and see for yourself that I wasn't lying."

"Fine."

Eric helped Moira search the apartments and in a short time they found footage of Moira. Old footage from years earlier of Moira and the humans she took information from. They would tell her anything to get her to sleep with them. It was a sick sort of desperation that her powers brought out. Some of them she simply took the information and sent away, others she slept with and seemed to enjoy it. After they left she always curled up sobbing and depressed for long periods of they came to the footage of Moira and Timon. There were weeks and weeks of it so Eric played it at high speed. Again and again he saw Timon drain Moira and then use her body while she lay unconscious. He skipped ahead to the end and found Timon's confession. It sounded very much like a confession of shame just as she had said. Timon claimed that he was telling her this information so that they would set her free. He couldn't stop killing her so he had to get her out, even if that meant they killed him in the end.

Moira had curled up on a sofa in the corner of the room while he watched, hugging her knees as she didn't really want to relive any of this. Eric switched off the video and went to her.

"So you were telling me the truth." He said. She nodded. "What made you so upset when those humans were taken away? Was it empathy at their coming execution?"

"Partially... but it was also a struggle with my nature."

"And what is the nature of a dryad? My kind longs for blood and sex and have volatile tempers and little empathy at all. I know nothing of what dryads want from existence."

"We want to be in the forest, to be near the trees. I can not be at peace without trees as often as possible… and… Dryads have a lot of lust. We are naturally timid so our powers are supposed be seen by our kind as a good thing…as a way to make up for being so shy..."

"You don't think it's a good thing to take away people's choices and yet your hunger will not relent." Eric said, he _did _understand her predicament.

She nodded.

"That lust you spoke of, are you feeling it now?" He asked, leaning a little closer to her.

She nodded again.

"Then perhaps we can help each other. " Eric pulled her into his lap and caught her lips with his own. She didn't protest or make any attempt to leave. In fact she all but melted in his arms as he kissed her again and again.

"You must be hungry." She said, pulling her hair away from her neck. Offering herself to him.

He was hungry. He'd been living on New Blood for a couple of weeks and had not fed in several days before his capture. His manhood entered her at the same time as his teeth did and she cried out. Her blood was almost intoxicating. He could see now why Timon had behaved as he did. He did not drink from her for long. He was old enough to show restraint. He continued to thrust into her for some minutes longer and she moved with him, kissing him when she wasn't occupied moaning. This was far better than sex with any human or vampire had ever been. Maybe she did have some power over him. Even if she did, he didn't care anymore. Then he felt it. A stab of pain at his heart and he pulled away.

"What did you do?" He asked, his skin looking paler than usual.

"I changed while you fed on me. Changed to a tree. Dryad blood _can _kill vampires in that instance." She told him. He shoved her off his lap and across the room, slamming her into the wall.

"The footage with Timon was real. I let him do all that stuff so it would be on record for you." Moira said as she picked herself up. "The truth is my power over vampires is very limited. I needed a little backup."

Eric tore open his shirt to find that his veins were turning purple. He had no idea how long he had left but he did know the end was near. "What? Why?" He wanted to get up and tear her apart but he found he didn't have the strength any more.

She glanced at a clock on the wall. "You have about six minutes Northman to tell me the codes before it's too late for the antidote."

Eric found himself laughing. There probably was no antidote and Moira had never been a prisoner but had in fact been behind the whole thing all along. Those men were not her captors but had been her prisoners. How had he not realized that? Such a wise old vampire and yet so stupid. He couldn't stop laughing.

"What the hell? Tell me the codes Northman or you will soon meet the true death!"

But Eric simply went still and refused to say a word.

"Shit!" Moira began pacing the room, unsure what to do next. Her plan had unraveled entirely.

"You can't let me die if you want your money. And now you can't let me live if you want your safety." Eric said.

She paced some more. Finally she went to the kitchen and placed a small bottle in his hands. " I _did _like you Eric. I don't want to kill you if I don't have to. This is a diluted antidote. It will take several hours work. By that time I'll be far away"

Eric opened the bottle and downed it. "But you've had my blood. You can't hide from me."

"I never..." Then she saw it, the blood on his lips had not all been her own. He had tricked her.

She jumped back horrified. Then fled out the door, taking the red sports car that had been parked outside. It didn't matter. Eric would find her in the end. He was already healing. There was no where she could hide.


	2. Chapter 2

The speedometer on the red porche increased with speed as Moira drove away from Eric. She couldn't get away from him fast enough. Even the eight-five miles an hour she drove wouldn't be enough. Ninety. One hundred and five. A sharp corner forced her to slow down a little but she was soon speeding up again when the road straightened.

It was all so fucked up. Everything. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. No one was supposed to get killed when they raided Fangtasia. Not any of her men nor Pam either. But the fact was, thirty men were just too many too keep under her spell at once. Some of them broke free in the chaos of the raid and panicked. It had only gone downhill from there. With humans, these things always went very smoothly. It didn't take nearly so many men to capture a human and it was very easy to get information from them once they were captive. Most of the time capture wasn't even necessary. She could just walk in and take what she wanted. Unfortunately, her only power over vampires was to play off of their sense of shame and guilt. She wasn't sure if it was even an actual power or maybe just a ploy that tended to work with vampire kind. And it didn't work at all on Eric Northman. To make matters worse, she'd started to have _feelings _for him.

She had been telling him the truth when she told him that no one had ever willingly held her before. She'd been telling him the truth about how she fought her nature. In fact most of what she had told him about her past and about dryads had been the truth. Even her initial fear of him had been genuine. The only real lie had been in her status as a prisoner. And the lies she had told herself about how it would all end.

Moira brushed away her tears with her left hand. She couldn't afford to have tears in her eyes while driving at such high speeds. A car crash would only slow down her escape.

It hardly mattered, even if she could manage to escape Eric, even if he didn't know how to kill her, she would die soon enough anyway. It would have taken twenty-three million dollars to reroute the highway and save her trees. So far all of her endeavors (a combination of theft and investments and legitimate business) had brought in eleven million. Timon had contributed nearly three hundred thousand. The ordinance allowing the highway had been passed six years earlier and she had fought it by every legal means she could. Lawmakers had not agreed to a reroute because it would take an additional twenty-three million in tax dollars. She would have to raise the money herself if she hoped to survive. It was that or expose the existence of dryads to humanity and hope they would be merciful. Of course they _wouldn't _be merciful. She couldn't do that to all the others of her kind. It wasn't her call to make. And she had run out of time. The project was due to begin at the end of the month. Two weeks left to live. Moira pulled the car over, unable to see for all the tears, and just sobbed.

Eric was just starting to regain his strength when he felt her sadness. The depth of it was unexpected. He had expected her to feel fear or panic given the threat he had just made and he had intended to let her wallow in the fear for a long time, never knowing when he might arrive. This was nothing like panic. It was despair. He had felt it before when someone bonded with him was nearing death. He disliked the feeling.

Forcing himself to move, Eric began to search the apartment. He knew very little about Moira, not even her last name. There should be something here about who she was or about the truth of her past. Anything that would help him know dryad weaknesses would help at this point.

There were letters in the mailbox addressed to Moira Woodbury. There were a lot of papers in the file cabinet having to do with the building of a highway, a truly excessive amount. Eric had no idea why Moira would be so interested in this highway. A little reading through the papers informed him that she was trying to convince lawmakers to reroute their planned road, but why?

Moira was moving again. The despair she had been projecting had changed into something closer to determination. She was moving _towards _him rather than away. If she planned to stake him while he was still weak, she was in for a surprise. He was feeling much stronger, certainly strong enough to fight a little tree bitch like her.

An hour passed, he heard her car long before it pulled into the drive. He stood stoically in the center of the living room, staring at the front door as it opened.

"You're either very brave or very stupid." Eric said as she closed the door behind her. She looked as terrified as she had when they first met and he could feel her fear. Good.

"Both, I suppose. I came to apologize." She said, shaken.

Her hands were in her pockets, otherwise Eric would have sped over to her and grabbed her by the throat. She could have a stake in there. She could be faster than he had originally thought, He didn't know enough about dryads to act just yet. He took one step towards her anyway for effect.

"Wait!" She held out her hand as if to stop him. "I know you're angry with me, and you should be given everything that's happened between us...You weren't what I expected you to be. You were much kinder than I thought vampires were capable of… no one was supposed to die… not Pam… not any of those men… and not you either…" Her voice was breaking with emotion. "It wasn't supposed to happen like this. I fucked up. I can never fix it. And I'm sorry." She took a step back and put her other hand on the doorknob as if to leave.

Seeing that she was unarmed, Eric was on her in a flash, he had a firm grip on her arms and let out a snarl on catching her so easily. He could feel her fighting her own terror, trying to remain calm and only barely succeeding. In a flash, he sat her in a kitchen chair and tied her up firmly.

"What are you going to to do?" She asked as he watched her, arms crossed.

"I haven't decided yet. I can't kill you, but I'm sure I can think of something fitting."

"I'm sure you can." She said, biting her shaking lip.

"Why did you really come back?"

"Why haven't you hurt me yet?"

"Because I want answers, and since I can't bargain with your life, we can at least bargain on much pain you'll be receiving." He said angrily. "So answer the question! Why did you come back?"

"I had a new plan. Granted, it was a very stupid and risky plan but I don't have anything left to lose, so I thought 'what the hell, it's worth a shot." Moira confessed.

"And what is this plan of yours?" He didn't trace any deceit in her current emotions so that helped.

"I thought that if I appealed to your sense of compassion I might be able to convince you to help me."

"Why the fuck would I help you now?" Eric stated, a little blown away by her unusual strategy.

"You're right, you wouldn't. Like I said, it was a very stupid plan." Moira went silent and stiff but Eric could sense that there was more she wasn't telling him. He almost didn't care to know whatever her secret was but he knew from experience that sometimes the wrong people got hurt if he didn't have the right information.

"Fine, Then you can have some time to think about it." Eric carried Moira in her chair down the stairs and locked her into the cell they had shared. He could feel her terror as he walked away. What was she so afraid of?

He found the coffin that he had been transported in (and probably Timon before him) and used it to sleep for the day. He awoke to Moira's nightmares around midday. So the dreams she suffered from had been real. It was difficult to resume sleep with all the fear she was giving off but the room was full of daylight making it impossible for him to go shut her up or pretend to comfort her or whatever it might take.

He couldn't help but think about the way she had clung to him when he had woken her from her nightmare before. She had seemed so genuine. Her body against his had made him hungry in more than one way, Her blood had tasted amazing…. but he had to stop thinking about this. It had been too long since he had truly fed. When night fell he would feed and then he would deal with the Dryad.


	3. Chapter 3

Though he was in an unfamiliar area, Eric had no difficulty hunting that night. Wherever they were, it was a small rural town. His best guest was Nevada or California but he coudn't be sure. Either way, it was easy enough to find a human, glamour them, feed, and make sure they forgot the experience and went home virtually unharmed. He spent some time looking around too, trying to learn the area. There were only a few places of business in this small town. A small grocery store with gas pumps, it was larger than a convenience store but not large enough to be called a supermarket. Then there was a post office, three different church buildings Methodist, Unitarian, and Roman Catholic. A sign hung outside of a what looked like a house for Benedict Wagner MD. There was a small cafe and a diner further down the street, with lots of residential houses in between everything. These people in this small town seemed quite unaccustomed to vampires and avoided him on the streets when he passed them. After he was done scouting out the place, Eric returned to the building where Moira was on a side street down behind the Unitarian church.

Moira was slumped over in the kitchen chair inside the cell where he had left her. She looked exhausted and worn and he knew she was mentally preparing herself for a great deal of pain. He hadn't decided yet what he wanted to do with her. He wanted to protect her almost as much as he wanted to hurt her and he'd never dealt with such a contradiction within himself before.

"You're back." Moira said sadly.

"You don't sound very happy to see me." Eric said.

"I wonder why?" She replied.

The sarcasm was a painful reminder of Pam. "Because you know what I plan to do to you." Eric told her but he knew she didn't actually know anything about what he planned. He didn't even know it himself.

"I wish I did. If I knew I could try and be ready for it. Not knowing is far worse." Moira said.

"I'll try to keep that in mind." Eric said as he unlocked the cell, careful not to touch the silver bars.

Moira braced herself as he approached her. To his surprise, Eric found himself untying her. "Sit." He said, pointing at the cement bed.

Without a word, she obeyed. She sat waiting for him to make his move, whatever that might be.

"Tell me, Moira, what do you want with my money?" He began.

Her eyes widened but somehow her tongue was tied and she had no answer for him.

"I know you can regenerate… but you saw what I did to Ed, I can't imagine you want a similar experience to heal from… so tell me before I decide to stop being so nice." Eric said firmly.

She swallowed. "My life force is bound to the trees, to specific trees near where I was born. If those trees die then I die. The government wants to build a highway there…"

"The money is for the new highway route, so that you can survive?" Eric said, all of it finally making sense.

Moira nodded, finding herself crying for the upteenth time in recent days.

"How much?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Twelve million."

Eric walked out of the cell, taking the chair with him, and slamming the door shut behind him. He left her there without speaking another word. He was still angry with her. Her reckless plan had gotten Pam killed and thirty human men as well. Not that he truly cared about them but they hadn't really needed to die. It would have been better if she could have accepted her fate and died bravely rather than dragging so many others down with her. But she had the right to fight for her survival. _He _certainly would have fought for his own survival. He couldn't fault her for being unwilling to die. He couldn't fault her for taking desperate measures trying to not meet the end of this thing called life.

Eric left her in that cell for several days. He refused to go down there and speak to her or address her growing terror. She likely thought he had left her to die when in truth he was too angry to speak to her without it turning violent. He knew she didn't truly deserve violence so it was best to keep away. Instead, he worked on something else.

It was the day after the highway project was due to begin when Eric finally went down to see Moira again. He brought with him a large plate of vegetables realizing she hadn't eaten in nearly two weeks.

Moira looked thin a sickly when he switched on the light to her cell. He unlocked the door and went inside, passing her a plate of food. She took it from him with trepidation. "Thank you." She whispered.

"I wasn't trying to starve you. I was just preoccupied." Eric said.

Moira said nothing to that, she was too busy eating. "Why aren't I dead yet?" She finally asked.

"Well, it could take a while for the road crews to reach your particular trees." He suggested.

"I suppose it could." She said, shaken.

"But that isn't why you aren't dead."

"Really?" She could hardly allow herself to hope.

"Yes. Really. I paid for the new highway. In essence I bought your life. You are mine."


	4. Chapter 4

_You are mine! _

The words resonated in Moira's mind. What did that even mean? Was Eric going to torture her after all? Was he going to use her for her powers? Did he intend to lock her away forever? Rape her? She had no way of knowing what he was thinking at all.

Some part of her wished that he had just let her die. If he planned to be kind to her like he was back when he thought they were both prisoners, then that might not be such a bad existence. In fact, she had wanted to accept his protection when he offered it. She had wanted leave with him and go back to Fangtasia. Now she realized what a horrible mistake she had made. It would have been better to have just gone with him, kept the truth to herself, and have a couple of weeks of happiness in his arms before she died.

A life of captivity and torture was not a life she wanted. She'd had that in the past. Being used by humans for her powers was not just a story she had told Eric to gain his sympathy. It was the truth. That truth had also been the inspiration for her plan to rob him but it was the truth all the same. She had been tortured before and had told herself that she would chop down her own trees before she would ever endure it again. Then she had willingly subjected herself to Timon and all the horrors of sharing a cell with him all for his money and so the video footage could be used to manipulate Eric. The only reason she had made herself suffer through all of that was because it was supposed to be temporary. When it was all over she would have a new life. Her new life was not supposed to be like this.

"Aren't you going to thank me for saving your life?" Eric's words drew her away from her thoughts. He sat down on the hard bed beside her.

"That depends on what you plan to do with me." She said, worriedly.

"I can feel your fear." He said, leaning closer to her and lifting her chin so she'd look into his eyes. "You're terrified of what I might do to you now that I have you." His fingers grazed her cheek and she felt a spark of something inside her.

Eric responded with half a grin. "I felt that too. You're afraid of me just as much as you want me."

Moira had no idea how to answer that. Every word he said was true. She was afraid of him and she also wanted to be with him. It didn't make any sense.

"It doesn't make any sense to me either." He moved closer to her. His breath would have grazed her ear if he'd had any. Instead, his teeth brushed across her neck. Moira's heartbeat quickened. "I learned something about your antidote over the past couple of weeks." He said in her ear. Moira closed her eyes. She knew exactly what she had learned. Now she was completely screwed. The antidote was permanent. Like a vaccine. Once a vampire had taken it, a dryad could never poison them again.

"Eric wait…" Moira tried to gently pull away from him but he was having none of that. In one swift motion he was on top of her and she was laying flat on the cell bed. Her heart was racing both from fear and from desire.

"What are you afraid of?" He asked her, meeting her eyes.

"I know you're still angry...just...just don't drain me... please…" She couldn't even begin to explain to him how agonizing it felt to die and be reborn again and again.

"I am still angry. But I'm not going to drain you. Haven't you ever heard of angry sex?"

Moira let out a giggle. Eric ended her laughter with his lips on hers. He tore off their clothes while they kissed. He thrust into her roughly and more quickly than any human ever had but Moira found she enjoyed it. He drank from her again and again while they fucked but he didn't come close to draining her.

"So was that supposed to be my punishment?' She asked him when it was over and he had all but collapsed on top of her.

" punishment is that you must live with what you have done, just as I must."

"Then what are you going to do with me? Besides the sex I mean?"

"I told you. You are mine. You'll come with me back to Fangtasia, share your blood and your body, and in exchange I will protect you."

Moira let out a sigh of relief. If she had to be owned by a vampire, at least it was this vampire. He was far better than others she had known. Then she started to worry. Did he expect her to be in a monogamous relationship with him? As a dryad, was she even capable of that? She had never tried it before but even if she could keep herself for him, it wouldn't stop all the human men in proximity from wanting her. She wondered if Eric had any inkling of how difficult it was going to be to keep a dryad all for himself.


	5. Chapter 5

The trouble began before they had even left the tiny town where they had been staying in for the past few weeks. Eric and Moira packed up a van in the yard for the journey back to Louisiana and went to the local gas station to fill it up.

"Go buy whatever food you need for the trip, and some New Blood too." Eric handed her some cash.

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Moira told him hesitantly.

He gave her a look that said he wasn't in any mood for being disobeyed.

"Okay, if you say so, _Sir._" Moira said, exiting the van and slamming the door shut behind her. Before she had even made it as far as the front door, heads began to turn. The bearded man pumping gas stopped to stare at her, then the two teen boys smoking by the front door, and the three guys in motorcycle gear on their way out of the store didn't head back towards their bikes, they headed in Moira's direction instead.

Eric saw it all. "Great." He muttered, realizing what he had started by sending her instead of going himself. He caught up to her in vampire speed. "Back to the car." He told her. "I've got this." This would be a test to see if vampire glamouring would hold more power than her dyad influence. "You never saw her." He told the bikers. They seemed confused for a moment, looking around the parking lot to find her. He repeated himself. "You never saw her. Now leave and forget you saw us both." Hesitant and confused, the men turned away and went back to their bikes. The others who had seen Moira were the same. Eric went inside and bought the food and returned to Moira in the van. She was smiling,

"Well that was nifty. Are you going to do that to all my admirers?" She asked as cheerfully as she could.

Eric grunted and started the vehicle without answering her, pulling out from the gas pumps and onto the road. He was in a bad mood from that point on and decided she would sleep in his coffin with him as he did not trust her to not amass an army for herself to escape him while he slept.

"I can't amass an army." She tried to tell him as the first dawn on the road was nearing. "I had a hard time controlling thirty men before and there aren't even thirty men to be found out here anyway. We're in the middle of nowhere." She didn't even try to tell him that she wasn't sure she wanted to escape. It was kind of nice to have someone else deflect the unwanted attention for a change. Not that all of the men who approached her were unwanted. Some of them she wanted very much. But she didn't think Eric could handle that information just yet so she kept it to herself. "We would get there a lot faster if I could just keep driving while you slept." Moira pointed out.

"Are you always so disagreeable?"

"I think it's you who's being disagreeable." She told him.

"No. The fact is, you aren't used to having anyone male disagree with you at all. You think you can just make whatever suggestions you and demands you want and I will obey just because I want you." He said irritated.

"Wow, you just described yourself there. I think you expect me to act like one of your fangbangers and obey your every whim just for the privilege of getting in your pants." She retorted.

"So you admit it's a privilege?"

"Shut up!"

Eric laughed and they continued riding in silence until Eric found a place to park the van where they could sleep for the day. Moira climbed into his casket sleep with him as he asked. She knew it wasn't really a request anyway and she knew better than to push him too far with her _disagreeableness. _She was his after all. She wasn't her own anymore and she wasn't sure how much freedom he would really allow her when it really came down to it. The casket was a very tight fit for the two of them. She had to lie half on top of him to even fit at all. He kept one arm around her and she had little choice but to lay her head on his chest or the lid wouldn't close. It might have been nice if she wasn't so worried.

"Will you stop that. I can't possibly sleep with all your worrying." Eric said after some minutes of silence.

"I'm sorry." She told him, but only managed to feel worse.

He opened his eyes. "What's the problem?"

"It's nothing. I'll be fine." She tried to assure him and to assure herself. She felt his hand comb his fingers through her hair and come to rest on her cheek.

He bent his head just enough to kiss the top of her head. "You still don't trust me. Give it time. You will."

She couldn't help but think that just maybe _he _would never trust _her. _

Soon after that, they were both asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

They arrived at Fangtasia to find it had been kept in business by one of Eric's employees and had just opened for the night when they arrived. Erc went inside and greeted his friends, giving them very few details on where he had been. Moira followed him hesitantly, unsure what her role here would be, or how she should occupy herself. When Eric headed for the elevated char she caught his arm.

"What should I do here?" Maybe he would give her a job to do, she hoped.

He shrugged. "Don't go far." Was the only instruction he gave her.

Moira found a corner table to sit at and watched the room begin to fill with both human and vampire patrons. She watched them for a while uninterested until she saw something in the opposite corner of the room that had her full attention. A piano. Dryads loved music and it had been a very long time since she'd had access to a piano. She rose from her table in a daze and all but danced across the room. Heads turned as she passed them. She sat down at the bench of the Mason and Hamlin grand piano. There was a gold plaque with the words "In Memory of William Compton" on the cover. Her hands glided over the keys as a jazz melody poured out as she began to sing "Someone To Watch Over Me," In the Ella Fitzgerald style. Moira's voice was a mesmerizing contralto and soon had the attention of not only all the humans in the room, but all the vampires as well. It was clear that Moira _did _have powers over vampire kind when music was involved.

_There's a saying old, says that love is blind_

_Still we're often told, "seek and ye shall find"_

_So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had in mind_

_Looking everywhere, haven't found him yet_

_He's the big affair I cannot forget_

_Only man I ever think of with regret_

_I'd like to add his initial to my monogram_

_Tell me, where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?_

_There's a somebody I'm longin' to see_

_I hope that he, turns out to be_

_Someone who'll watch over me_

_I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood_

_I know I could, always be good_

_To one who'll watch over me_

_Although he may not be the man some_

_Girls think of as handsome_

_To my heart he carries the key_

_Won't you tell him please to put on some speed_

_Follow my lead, oh, how I need_

_Someone to watch over me_

_Won't you tell him please to put on some speed_

_Follow my lead, oh, how I need_

_Someone to watch over me_

_Someone to watch over me_

Eric was on his feet and next to her the moment the song ended. It was too late. Four vampires had gotten to her first and there were more on their way. He barely had time to see what happened as she was pulled from the piano bench by the first vampire. He only knew that the vampire who had grabbed her, exploded into a pile of blood and guts. The second vampire to reach for her ended much the same way. She moved with speed nearly as fast as his own. It wasn't until the third vampire that he saw how she had done it. Her arm had turned to wood, a wooden stake that was part of her body. But she had slowed down and this vamp took the opportunity to catch her arms, pinning her against the nearest wall. Eric pulled him away from her, throwing the young vamp into the bar and setting Moira free. All the blood and violence had stilled the room and he chose that moment of silence to loudly remind them. "She is mine!"

Everyone went back to what they were doing as if there hadn't just been two deaths in the room. Eric's power was such that no one here dared to anger him. He went to check on Moira who lay crumpled up on the floor where her attacker had left her. He saw that her arm was back to normal, no longer a weapon but she looked weak and didn't seem to have the strength to get up. He picked her up and carried her to the back room.

"Are you alright?" He asked her, laying her gently on a sofa.

"I'll be fine. It just takes a lot out of me to do that. I didn't know that my singing would have such an effect on vampires. I've never done that before."

Eric sighed. "But I take it you did know that you could make a wooden stake of your arm?"

She nodded, biting back the tears.

"Moira you've been sleeping in the same coffin with me all week… you could have killed me many times over since we've met...why haven't you?" He asked, genuinely wanting to know.

"Were you even listening to the song?" She said in a frustrated sob. "I've had seven hundred years of life and not one genuine relationship! I'm so fucking sick of being alone…of never having anyone care for me of their own free will...I'd rather belong to you...even if you hate me...because at least you had a choice in it…"

"I don't hate you, Moira." Eric said, taking her hand.

"Not yet, but you will. I can only fight my nature for so long." She told him in almost a whisper.

"What does that mean? That you'll want to sleep with humans?" He asked matter of factly.

She nodded in response.

"Okay, then do it if you must." He told her. "It is no use to fight our nature entirely. Just try not to be destructive when you can help it."

"But I thought…"

"That I meant to own you?"

She nodded.

"I did. I have changed my mind. I don't wish to own you Moira Woodbury, you are free to leave if you wish. But if you should chose to stay, I will still offer my protection. I would be... someone to watch over you."

She hadn't meant to throw herself into his arms but he caught her when she did it anyway.

"I take it this means you plan to stay?" Eric said as he held her.

"It does. I do." She told him, hardly able to contain her joy.


End file.
